EDITORIAL: Labor win gifts a timely boost for White

OUR would-be premier tied the knot on Saturday and the voters of Pembroke could not wait to give her a wedding gift.

Only a day after marrying her partner Rod, Labor leader Rebecca White was able to revel in the party’s victory in the by-election for the Legislative Council seat on Hobart’s Eastern Shore.

Her opponents, on the other hand, have been doing their best to, as the saying goes, make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.

The Liberals have hailed their own failed campaign as a success in that their candidate finished second to Labor’s Jo Siejka but ahead of independent Doug Chipman.

It was Alderman Chipman, the Clarence Mayor, who Will Hodgman’s party targeted in an extremely negative campaign that angered many by suggesting he was too old.

The argument goes that the Liberals had to finish in the top two to stand a chance, and they did that.

But their strategy fell down on the fact that they then needed to gain a strong flow of preferences from other candidates.

Fewer people likely voted for Alderman Chipman than might otherwise have been the case, but of those who did, more gave their preferences to the Labor candidate than to the Liberal one.

This is in spite of the fact that his politics would likely make him closer – on most issues – to the Liberals.

It is not an unreasonable assumption then that the attacks on Alderman Chipman angered many of his supporters and caused them to help get Ms Siejka over the line.

Pembroke became up for grabs with the resignation of Liberal Vanessa Goodwin, a good friend of Mr Hodgman and the former Attorney-General, who had to stand down due to her ongoing battle with brain cancer.

Given a choice, Premier Hodgman would surely have preferred to have another independent in the Legislative Council than a fourth Labor Member, but it appears his party has to accept some of the blame.

The government now has to deal with a Legislative Council that will be even more predisposed to vote against its legislation.

The opposition, meanwhile, has had an invaluable confidence-boosting win heading toward the state election.

As local Labor member Shane Broad said on social media: “Whichever way you look at it Labor has just won a Liberal seat.”

While the victory will have no direct effect on the March poll, it does at least strengthen the Labor team and Ms White’s leadership.